« Iran's Growing Threat in Iraq | Main | Army To Address Dragon Skin Armor »
May 23, 2007
Eyes Wide Border Perspective
A series of articles highly recommended by Tina Grazier
UPDATE For those who are interested I now have the links to all five parts of this series. Find them HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE.
I happened across a series of articles about illegal immigration by a man named Todd Bensman writing in San Antonio Express News. Follow the link to find the first in the series, “Breaching America: War Refugees or Threats”. This excellent work takes us on a first person journey to the Middle East where, from a small café deals are struck to smuggle people into our country for as much as $10,000.00, but a man named Boles finds a way to come to America for only $750.00. He will travel to Russia first, then to Cuba, Guatemala and finally to Mexico and the Rio Grande. It is here that he must have encountered the border patrol . Boles told U.S. authorities that he is a Chaldean Christian from the Iraqi town of Bartella, near Mosul — a persecuted ethnic minority with origins in the Eastern Christian tradition but with long ties to the Roman Catholic Church. The numbers coming across our borders, as we know, are daunting. This excellent series of articles offers a perfect snapshot of the realities and extraordinary challenges we face.
I will share some statistics from the piece but I urge you to read the articles. They are well written and reflect the careful investigative work Mr. Bensman has invested. He brings a serious, thorough, and thoughtful perspective to the issue of immigration...and after all of the political bickering we’ve experienced of late it’s refreshing to view this problem close up.
U.S.-bound illicit travel from Islamic countries, which started long before 9-11 and includes some reputed terrorists, has gained momentum and worried counterterrorism officials as smugglers exploit 2 million Iraq war refugees. The irony is that the war America started to make itself safer has forced more people regarded as security threats toward its borders.
Since 9-11, the U.S. government has made guarding the 1,952-mile Mexican border a top priority. One million undocumented immigrants are caught each year trying to cross the southern and northern U.S. borders.
People from 43 so-called "countries of interest" in the Middle East, South Asia and North Africa are sneaking into the United States, many by way of Texas, forming a human pipeline that exists largely outside the public consciousness but that has worried counterterrorism authorities since 9-11.
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection apprehension numbers, agents along both borders have caught more than 5,700 special-interest immigrants since 2001. But as many as 20,000 to 60,000 others are presumed to have slipped through, based on rule-of-thumb estimates typically used by homeland security agencies.
Other federal agencies besides the Border Patrol have caught thousands more of the crossers inland after it was discovered they were in the country illegally, including 34,000 detainees from Syria, Iran, Sudan and Libya between 2001 and 2005, according to a homeland security audit last year of U.S. detention centers for immigrants. Then there is an unknown number caught by Mexico — an inveterate partner, as it turns out.
Efforts to stop the traffic are, in some ways, beyond U.S. control. Corrupt foreign officials and bureaucrats in Latin American consulates and in the Middle East have sold visas. Others hand them out without taking U.S. security concerns into account. ** Anti-U.S. sentiments run deep in nations across the globe, creating steppingstones to America for those whose illicit travel plans sometimes are abetted with delight.
Todd Bensman’s research took him to countries like Syria, Damascus and Jordan as well as Mexico and Guatemala. He studied materials from smuggling investigations, court records and intelligence summaries and he conducted interviews with law enforcement officers in Mexico and the US.
The time has come for Congress to get serious about this war and a big part of the war effort occurs on our borders. I would think that rather than a political or legal issue the focus for border legislation should first concern the safety of Americans. This should be the number one goal of all legislators. Our enemies want to bring harm to Americans of every stripe and color. They do not find our celebration of differences of any consequence at all. They embrace whatever will facilitate their prime objective…to destroy America, Israel and all who will not submit. They celebrate and relish the destructive divisive and childish quarreling that passes for debate amongst our leaders. It offers them cover as they plot to come across our borders and do us harm here at home.
Posted by Post Scripts at May 23, 2007 08:52 AM